The present invention relates to an optical pickup for conducting recording and/or reproducing of information through irradiation of a light upon an optical disc, and it relates to, in particular, an objective lens actuator mounting lens protectors therein, for protecting objective lenses from contacting upon the optical disc, and also relates to an optical pickup equipped with the same.
In recent years, in particular, with an optic disc apparatus, advancement is made on high-speed of data transfer rate with high-density thereof. An optical pickup is one of the important parts of the optical disc apparatus, for conducing the recording/reproducing of data.
Among the structures of the optical pickup, the objective lens actuator is an apparatus for driving an objective lens, which focuses a laser beam upon a recording surface on the optical disc, in a focusing direction (i.e., a direction of approaching/receding to the optical disc surface), a tracking direction (i.e., a direction of radius of the disc) and a radial tilt direction (i.e., an inclination in the radial direction of the optical disc). For achieving the high-density within the optical disc apparatus, advancement is made on shortening the wavelength of the laser beam, and accompanying this, the focus distance comes to be narrow between the optical disc and the objective lens. For this reason, when driving the objective lens in the focusing direction, sometimes they fall down in such cases where the optical disc and the objective lens cannot keep sufficient gap or distance between them, so that they contact with each other; and this gives an ill influence upon the performances of the optical disc apparatus.
With the conventional art shown in the following Patent Document 1, a lens protector is mounted on a moving part mounted the objective lens thereon, on a side surface thereof in the tracking direction of the objective lens, and further a disc protector is mounted on a protection cover for protecting the moving part; thereby achieving counter measures against scratches on the optical disc and the lens.
Further, with the conventional art described in the following Patent Document 2, a lens protector is mounted on the moving part mounting the objective lens thereon, on the side surface in the tracking direction of the objective lens, through application, and further a pair of lens protectors, differing from on the hardness and the height, are mounted in the rotation direction of the optical disc and in the vicinity of the lens protector mentioned above; thereby achieving the countermeasure against the scratch on the optical disc.
[Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2005-251246 (2005); and
[Patent Document 2] Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2008-52812 (2008).